Ok, you have heard this excuse far too much, but it is summer time, I have been shooting a lot, just not posting. SOund familiar? It should.

So yes I have been pretty busy with some events that have been happing, two weeks ago I was at Creation Festival: North West with BFC (Boarders For Christ) in Enumclaw, WA. Now that was a great time, was shooting for a lot of it, but had a ton of fun, got to meet some rad people and heard some great bands. There is not a whole lot to share about the photos, but take a look:

Road Trippin’

A shot from the truck.

Thumbs up from Noel Riske.

Power lines commin’ in hot.

Same with the windmills.

Michael Shamberg, bringing the fire on the mic.

Zach Black, in black and white.

Joshua Monteith welcomes you to creation.

Joey Ozol gets gnarly at Creation.

Joey shreds.

Joey Shreds again.

Corey Chilton bringing the fire for the last time.

Aaron Vetsch, how handsome.

Looks better now, doesn’t he?

Aaron gives tattoos.

Now this week I have been at INWYC (Inland North West Year Book Camp) just going through work shops to learn how to produce a great yearbook. I have taken a few photo classes while I have been here and they are pretty simple but they are fun I guess. We had a “photo contest” during one of the break out sessions which was fun because it was on Gonzaga University’s campus which is just beautiful and had some fun doing that. Here are the photos:

Im going to try to post more :/

Thanks!
-Stephen

When one looks at a black and white photo, there can be very mixed feelings. There can be joy, sadness, content, ect. A black and white photo can be so moving and is very powerful. This last week I have been shooting just things in my life and really felt that they should be black and white. A black and white photo isn’t just a contrasty two toned photo, it is a photo that speaks to someone through two very opposite colors that contrast correctly to bring emotions through.

Yes, a color photo can do the same exact things but black and white typically can be very moving and very powerful.

Please examine:

Thank you,

-Steve

Since it has been summer, I haven’t been posting as much as I would like to. I keep shooting, but just haven’t really posted anything. I haven’t shot anything in specific, it is all just day to day stuff. I am finally getting through a lot of my photos and editing and all that good stuff so I am moving forward for sure.

Where I find my self spending the most amount of time is editing  video. Im so slow at it and not exactly the best at it either. I guess video just takes a lot more time that I thought it would. Maybe I just need to have more patients.

Right not I am in a photography drought. I don’t have anything that I want to go shoot. It is quite bothersome, I really need some inspiration for sure. I have found myself looking back through my blog and just viewing all of my old photos. What I used to think was so bad, I really like and what I used to like I think it looks so bad. I think that I can speak for most photographers (artists too) that we go through phases of liking and disliking our work. While being in a photography dilemma at the moment I need to keep looking at others work and innovate, not imitate. That right there is a good life motto, Ill end on that note.

Here is what I have been shooting:

And here is my media for this post:

This is the first post that I am making since I recieved the new 7D. I have been just blown away with the quality of everything on the camera, especially the video capabilities. I have never really done any video what so ever so this is defiantly new territory for me. It took me a while to get a grip (literally) of this whole filming deal, but it is defiantly something that I would like to work with and really figure out. With technologies changing so rapidly the future of photography is defiantly leaning toward the filming aspect of digital art. If one can master both stills and video, there is a bright career ahead for them. If you do not know me personally I love biking and all forms of it, but one of my main forms of transportation is my fixed gear bike. Since I got my new 7D I have been dying to make a biking edit (I need to learn to edit good first ha) So I purchased this clamp from Bushnell which is actually a window clamp but fits on my handle bars and it has a nice little handle which makes for a steadier image. Speaking of steady-ness I need to work on that.

The photo aspect of the 7D is super legit. I love shooting stills with it way more than my previous 40D (R.I.P 4oD) It is just different and this different is good. The ISO capabilities are just amazing, shooting at 2000 ISO is just beautiful and it is so clear. I can not wait to see where this takes me with photography. Overall the Canon 7D is super rad and I am stoked.

This last week I have just been shooting what ever looks eye-grabbing. Nothing really in specific, just random stuff that I feel needs to be documented. Lots of these photos are in my yard, street or just in my area. I sometimes feel that I have to go somewhere to go shoot but really I can just walk outside of my house and whammy I have a photo. I live in such a beautiful area it is very simple to get a good shot. Since I got my new camera I am working harder on trying to spend a lot of of time on the photo so I have a great exposure, great depth of field and great composition. I have been focusing on depth of field a lot in this last week because I believe that one can share large amounts of emotion through the angle and depth of field. I got a complement this last week about a photo that is on my blog that really made the person feel moved and really feel what is going on in the photo. He said the he saw past the image and really felt to emotion being given off. That is something that I have been trying to incorporate in my photography and I am going to really work on showing the true emotion and the direct feeling being given off from the photo. Here are the images from the week:

Cody Schneider, before the fall.

Cody Schneider after the fall.

BoardSkate.

That is the question, have you hugged your bike today?

My bike.

A drum set I would like to sell.

Some flowers outside my house.

More flowers outside my house.

Even more flowers outside my house.

These are stems to a flower that are pretty standard but look cool, right?

Flower photography is weird. Almost all of the shots look pretty standard (for me at least) They usually are just a macro photo of a flower and bokeh in the background. You just wait and I will get a flower photo that won’t be standard and will different from the typical flower shot.

Here is my tester footage with my new 7D:

Canon 7D tester footage from stephen Sturges on Vimeo.

I defiantly have a lot to learn about video editing, shooting video, and just about every thing. This is my first video I have actually made and it is just mainly tester footage but let me know what you think, areas of improvement and all that jazz. I would love to learn how to film decent because I really do think that it is fun.

Thank you all, please comment.

-Stephen

Here it is at last. A long nine months of school and very cold welcoming to our three month “summer”. In North Idaho the weather has been foul. Rain, clouds, winds, storms. Everything but the sun. But that does not stop us North Idahoans from having fun and certainly doesn’t stop us from graduating (seniors that is). Last week the Coeur d’Alene High School Class of 2010 Graduated and I had the privilege to shoot it. With around 250 students walking, it was quite the ceremony and took a great amount of time. Thanks to Essex Prescott for letting me use his 70-200mm and his 15mm Fish Eye, with out them, I would have been at a larger disadvantage. I say larger because prior to the graduation my Canon 40D croaked on me, most likely the circuit bored fried out on me but I am sending it into Canon to fix it. But another thanks to my brother, Scott Sturges for letting me use his 50D. Really the only things that were mine to shoot with were the memory card, battery grip and flash. But I just recently purchased the new 7D quite excited about that part. Here are the graduation shots:

Aaron vetsch

Brandon Di Simone

Hats being thrown!

Before they were thrown

My brother, Scott and Principal or CHS, Randy Russell

Joey Ozol

Best friend shot

I spotted some classy graduates, Graham Neff and Lane Mehringer

After graduation, my family and I headed over the Glacier National Park, Montana for some outdoor-ness. Though I didn’t have a camera, I did have a brother that would sometimes lend me his camera, thanks again Scott. Something that most people do not take into consideration is the beauty that God has placed before us. God has placed amazing nature right in front of us and we are just too “busy” to notice the beauty of it. When I was there in Glacier, I wanted to take the time to slow down and acknowledge the beauty that The Lord has given us. Something I read in Psalm 104:24, 30: How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures…. When You send Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth. Those verses were perfect for what I was seeing In Glacier. It was truly one of the most beautiful places I have every seen. Something that I am going to start doing is visually document the beauty of our earth and bring recognition to God’s beauty. Here are the photos from Glacier:

Not sure if this was carved into this tree or if it was just naturally like this, regardless I like it.

Just some grass I found photo-worthy.

An interesting fungus on some leaves.

Moss on a log.

Beauty.

A lonesome leaf.

A lightning fire came through here.

Water on some leaves after a heavy rain.

Thank you for viewing, please comment!

-Steve

At last the year has come to an end. Looking back through all my work from this past school year I have covered a very large amount of the photography spectrum. I have done abstract, action sports, black and whites, landscapes, portraits, team sports and many more. Though I have tried to do something new every week with my photography, I feel strongest in my portraits and landscapes. After looking back and seeing all the work I have done this last year, I decided to do my final series on portraits. The key things that complete a portrait to me are these things:

1^st – Facial Expression. This is what seems to make or break a shot. The photo could be perfect composition and perfect lighting, but if the subject has a bad facial expression it can pretty much ruin the photo.

2^nd – Body Language. If the subject is doing a stupid pose, it could ruin the photo. The photo could have the best exposure, composition, best anything but with bad body language, or a lame pose, bam, the photo is considered ruined (to me of course).

3^rd – Lighting. Regardless of what look the photographer is going for, lighting is key. If it is a silhouette portrait (doesn’t make a whole lot of since, for a portrait) the lighting has to be prime. If it is just a studio portrait, still the lighting has to be dead on. If it is a lifestyle portrait, more often than not, the lighting has to be solid.

4^th – Composition. Where you place the subject matters a whole lot also. A perfectly composed portrait is always nice to look at. Make sure there are not clipped/missing appendages or clipped heads. People want to look at a well-composed portrait and if it is sloppy, it is typically a bad portrait, let a lone photo in general.

5^th – Story. This is a very important thing to remember. People want to look at a photo and really see what is going on. It is very crucial for the viewer to see the story that the model/subject is sharing with them. Eyes are a big part of that. One can share so much just through the eyes and also with facial expression.

Those 5 concepts are something that I have tried my best to include in every portrait I shoot and for that matter every photo I take. So with my final project, I shot portraits. But I started noticing it is a lot harder to get those concepts perfect and in every photo. With this project I have tried to descriptively show the subjects story and demonstrate the skills that I have obtained shooting this last year.

I originally started out with about fourteen portraits, but I slowly go rid of a few and then narrowed it down to ten portraits. I used the fact that your project is as strong as your weakest photo. I wouldn’t consider the unused photos bad but defiantly not as strong. I was originally going the balanced contrast of 10 photos that five are black and white and five are color. With in that I was going for five that were horizontal and five that were vertical. It didn’t completely happen as planned but I ended up with six horizontal photos and four vertical photos. Also I have four color portraits and six black and white portraits. I realized that I have shot the majority of my portraits vertical this last year. It seems with a battery grip I got lazy and shot so much vertical that I forgot about horizontal shooting. So that is why I tried to shoot half of my portraits horizontal and half vertical. I ended up with the six horizontal shots and feel good about that number. It isn’t the balance that I wanted but it was close. I feel that I have a way better grip of shooting horizontal now and especially horizontal portraits. Something also that I noticed is a horizontal portrait (to me of course) is more powerful than a typical vertical portrait. Maybe that is because I thought vertical portraits were just a little boring to me.

When I first approached the final project, I was like “I am going to do black and white portraits! Yay!” Before I started shooting I thought that a black and white photo was more powerful than a colored photo. But once I did start shooting I came to the conclusion that it is not a black and white portrait that makes a photo powerful, but it is a combination of those five points I jotted down above. A colored photo can be equally as powerful and moving as a black and white portrait.

Here are the photos of the final project:

Bobby Gibbs

Essex Prescott

Lane Mehringer

Cody Schneider

Mario Martinez

Kyle Harris

Zach Black

Andrew Harder

Josh Tyvan

Michael Shamberg

For the very first one of Bobby Gibbs, I had my 540EZ flash focused at 50mm and at 1/2 power pointed down towards his feet. I had this idea for this portrait because almost every single portrait is in the top corners and I felt that this was a perfect angle for him. Flashing for portraits outside of studio is a lot of fun mainly because you have so much freedom with the lights and can get really creative. I have shot a lot more with my flashes and not the strobes due to the portability  factor and also it is so easy to focus the flash on just one section. But there are advantages to the strobes because a lot more power.

For the second one of Essex Prescott, it is all natural light which I really like. After shooting with flashes for a lot of things it becomes like an addiction. It is just so easy to use the flashes and makes it a lot easier to expose photos. But going back to natural light is a lot of fun for me right now. It was shot at ƒ/ 1.8  and I did that primarily to get a perfect bokeh. The background is all grass that was swirling so it was perfect for a bokeh shot. This shot just seems like a perfect photo for Essex because it fits for his normal environment because he is an out-doorzy person.

For the third shot of Lane Mehringer, I had him in the studio which doesn’t really seem like it would fit for Lane, but I used a black back drop for his shot because almost every time I see him, he is in black, so it fits. But I shot wide for this one so I could get a little disproportion in him. It doesn’t make him look as tall and seems to fit him. I tried to incorporate his long hair as much as possible and this was the best shot of him with his hair.

For the fourth one of Cody Schneider we were out at the golf course and though this isn’t really who Cody is, I really like the photo. Shows the story of us out there. The bokeh is perfect for the shot, really reminds me of golf. This one was natural light also. I did try this one with flashes so I could light up the background a tad but stopped using the flashes for this shot of him.

With the shot of Mario Martinez we were down town shooting some skateboarding and he was just looking at me so I snapped this photo and I wasn’t really intending for a portrait but it came out really good and I love it. I was shooting portraits of somebody else in this same spot but Mario is very photogenic so I really like it. It really fits in for rule 1 and 2 of mine so I am pleased with it.

Kyle Harris is one of the best models I have ever used and it is partly because of a nice face and a grungey beard and ear rings. I love the exposure and composition of this. With the horizontal photo like this one, it really makes this shot strong so I am quite pleased with it.

With the photo of Zach Black, I had a flash behind him lighting up the door way to bring out all of the textures and giving a very proper amount of back lighting around him. I had Mike Shamberg hold another flash to left of Zach and point it at his face so the viewer can really see the facial expression.

Back to the Avadon photos. I shot the photo of Andrew with the Avadon style. Why? Because he was the king of portraits and Andrew is the perfect person for a studio shot like this one. I tried to incorporate his dreds in with this shot because he is quite proud of them. This to me is my most favorite photo in the whole series because it just has so much power. It also shows the progress that he has in his dreds and how long he has been growing them which is something the “dred-heads” are proud of I have been informed.

Josh Tyvan is fun person to photograph. He is a very serious person so it makes for a good shot. I usually only shoot skate shots of Josh but this was a shot that I got of him after he was done skating. It shows the good expression and color contrasts so I love those factors. Playing with bokeh is a lot of fun because you can do so much with the textures. The trees and folliage in general in the back ground of Josh’s shot really stood out to me so I thought “bokeh?!?”

Last but not least, Michael Shamberg. Taking photo of photographers is probably one of my favorite things to do. They understand what has to be done, where they have to be, and just know how to pose. It is fun shooting with fellow photogs because we can discuss the photos and come to a steady medium and combine our skills and create a great shot. So I have to give Mike some props for helping compose this shot. When I looked back through my blog I saw a photo of my friend Tim in very close to the same spot so I thought that I should come back there and re-do it. Going back to spots that I have shot at is fun because I can re-create an image that I have already done and compare them. This one of Mike I like a lot more because I feel like a composed it better and it has better exposure.

The inspiration for this project was mainly sparked up by looking back through my blog and finding something that I feel strong with. But there is this one photographer, Corey Perrine, who is a photo-journalist that I have been following his work ever since we came in contact via Sportsshooter.com when I contacted him about a lens. But seriously his work, portraits specifically is just amazing and I love viewing it. Thank you Corey for being my inspiration.

That is my final project, think you for viewing please comment.

-Steve

P.S.- I will continue to blog throughout the summer so please check weekly